


I met a traveler from an ancient land

by DalekLetoEndeavour



Category: Ancient Roman Religion & Lore, Endeavour (TV), Inspector Morse & Related Fandoms
Genre: Alternate Universe - Past Lives, Angst with a Happy Ending, M/M, Reincarnation, Venezia | Venice, just my cannon, no spoilers for oracle, past lives trying to fix cannon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-08
Updated: 2020-02-08
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:46:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22613542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DalekLetoEndeavour/pseuds/DalekLetoEndeavour
Summary: Life time’s ago the fate of two men had been woven together and brutally forced apart.Once king of kings, ruler of the glorious long gone Roman Empire now helpless wanderer Emperor Justinian Hux has the chance to combine once more the lives of two oblivious lovers connected by destiny.
Relationships: Max DeBryn/Endeavour Morse
Comments: 4
Kudos: 3





	I met a traveler from an ancient land

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Ozeanpelz](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ozeanpelz/gifts).



> For my dear Oceanpelz who isn't even in this fandom but was eager enough to ask me about the background story of my OC cosplay, remember the one where Insta deleted the epic caption?  
> This cosplay to be precise;  
> https://www.instagram.com/p/B2CQ6NVIZt5/?igshid=1vig0vafs6hxg 
> 
> Also apologies to people who are actually in this fandom  
> This is my first time writing Bryndeavour have mercy uwu
> 
> Also highly recommend listening to Sea Wolf "Dear Fellow Traveler" Old World Romance while reading

Quarter past midnight.

Bleak winds howl through the alleys of the city of streams.

Bearing the stench of bashfulness.

A darkness incomparably almost uncomfortable for one who fears of drowning in it.

There's a shadow rushing past him.

A chocked scream

Might have been the intoxication to play tricks on him but when he approached to investigate the origin of the noise, it was clear that it hadn't been the alcohol.

There laid a man, well just on the brink of being one really, all dressed in an expensive but rather looking ancient cloak and tunic. Holding his throat, this appeared to just have been cut through by the state of his hands, and starring bewildered at his surroundings. After a brief moment of gathering strength and checking upon his physical state he cursed.

"Blasted witches."

The stranger got up, hand railing against the wall to stabilize him. With a deep sign he walked towards the intrigued detective.

"Would you have the kindness of telling me where I am?" his voice was melodious tainted with an accent strangely familiar, yet unable to point down. "Venice. Are you alright?"

"Pff fine," actually I'm not, slave, I just had been murdered by my uncle and resurrected by sending me scattered through time. Fine yeah just peachy. "So who holds currently the power over the empire?" "The empire?" The detective wondered if his opponent might just have had a bit too much too

"Very well then another try..." the stranger fumbled in his cloak until he retrieved a leather pouch emptying a considerable stack of gold coins in his hand. Handling one over to the detective who responded with an scrutiny look .

"Here slave tell me if you recognize the emperor and how far we are away from his rule. You look educated enough to count."

The detective shot him an anticipating glance before examine the coin. This was some kind of joke going wrong right?

The coin had imprinted Imperatus Rex Romanum Anastasius 502

They were too well preserved to be from a museum, _surely must be some kind of fraud_.

Yet the accuracy was indeed remarkable.

"A coin from the Justinian area. A rule which had ended a thousand years ago. How did you came into possession of such coins?"

Was this a set up for some black market antique fraud perhaps?

A smuggler ring he had accidentally been mistaken for a customer? "A thousand years ago my my" he mumbled before adding bluntly

"The perks of in line for the throne I guess." "I beg your pardon?" "Oh don't you give to much thought about it. You are way to pretty for that. Your owner must truly be amazed by you. And very careless letting you run around in such revealing clothes at that time of the day." The stranger run two finger across a ginger lock which had happen to fell into the detectives face. Who was stopping that hand from further investigations by trapping his wrist. "Who are you?" "Flavius Aurelius Iustinianus Augustus Apollondorus Hux; Rightful heir to the throne of the holy Roman empire. Friends, lovers and nemesis call me Justinian. So you may do so too if we shall get acquainted in such way. What does your master call you?" Perplex over the last statement he replied. "Morse people just call me Morse."

"Oh how rather unfortunate for you. I shall call you Endymion for the time being." Justinian frowned but nodded to justify that change of name. It suited the auburn haired man. The detective pinched the bridge of his nose, what a strange person. _Was it took late to blame this on the Italian wine?_ "For the time being?" "Oh usually only till sunrise or a day at last. I tend to make the most of it."

_Before I get dragged back to the inevitability of treason._

_Cursed be those witches_

_Be dammed to the 7 circles of hell_

_Eaten by Cerberus_

Clearly he was not to be reasoned with, but he was fairly attractive and his voice pleasing so why not listen to it a bit more. "That would be in 4 hrs." "Plenty of time!. Come along slave! I want to see more of this new aspect of time."

With a flick of his wrist he meant the detective to follow him.

Which he, _to his own surprising_ , did.

They had walked across the piazza of the basilica dedicated to the saint Marcus. The stranger hadn't stopped to stare at them in awe as so many tourists had done and would do. No he had moved in fast steps towards the end of it piazza. There stretched a small port with the empty gondolas rocking in the deep dark waters, where you could spot a daylight the small island of San Giorgio Maggiore ; which once had harbored a cloister did now functioned as the city's graveyard for the noble and privileged sons of the city.

Now settling down on a bench which was located near the edge, Justinian had retrieved a mirror from his belt pouch, which appeared to harbor more things inside than the inferior outside wants to make you believe, to check upon the state of his cut on his throat. No cut to be seen, just blood. At some point, he had noticed that his companion for the night had started talking so he picked up the conversation at that point without knowledge of the context beforehand.

"I'm not a slave. You might not be away of it but slavery was banished centuries ago."

Morse looked rather offended at him when he realized that his past words were as good as cast against a wall. Since he had his pride he wouldn't repeat them just to be ignored again.

"Oh don't be offended. We are all slaves to our hearts." "What no." Instinctively his left hand had found its way to his jacket pocket as if he had kept a treasure in there.

_Wrong jacket_

And that treasure had long been returned to his rightful owner

Yet months ago there was this tiny token of hope dwelling in there.

An item of a love unspoken

_A keepsake of Agápe_

Justinian looked at him. "Oh do not deny it my precious Endymion. For I'll be gone in the morning. So you may speak now of the things you do regret. Might be the last change you get." "I don't even know you. This is getting rather absurd."

"Or run back to your master arms. Whatever pleases you?" "See I do have a master. There is no such thing as Master and slaves anymore. If you would have listened to me just now instead of checking yourself in the mirror you would know." The stranger had lowered the mirror displeased. "Your heart being enslaved by your mind stopping you from let it roam free. Modern times slavery. And do apologize my behavior must appear terribly narcissistic to you

but I was in dire need to check up upon this wound of mine." He put the mirror back into his pouch and then looked at his opponent with big dark puppy eyes. This was rather irritating. "How did you end up here in the first place?" "Would you believe me if I were to tell you?" _Of the martyrdom I have to live through almost every night? You wouldn't. I wouldn't believe it_ _myself_. "Probably not. Alas being suspicious is kinda how I earn my living." Justinian took that as a cue and tapped the empty seat beside him, inviting. "I was born in Rome to a barbaric slave they said, was robbed from her labor bed to pass me off as the child of my father's wife. Of course cast of as a lie. Yet one cannot deny the copper hair of a Britannic blood when looking in the mirror. A witch bred some said. I am or mere was to be the new emperor of all of Rome and its glory." He let out a deep sign gathering his strength to continue as he felt how heavy his voice was breaking on those last words. The detective hug upon his lips. So lost at those words of ancient clarity. Fanatic or not, he truly was capable of performance art „My uncle's mad ridden by the longing to possess power equal to mine.. No to take what was mine.. Slayed me and my lover were at the stroke of midnight. Their blades stroke him from behind before they cut my throat with some cursed shard of broken glass. So I roam now ferociously through the centuries not knowing where to be or whom to meet. Only rage no serenity. I do not expect you believed me." With no hesitation the detective spoke. "What was their name?" An absent smile on cherry wine red lips, retrieving yet another item from his pouch, an small icon, he obliged

An absent smile on cherry wine red lips, retrieving yet another item from his pouch, an small icon, he obliged to share.

"His name was Icarus Antinous. A freed slave with an incredible knowledge of the mechanics of the body. Putting those skills to good use while serving as a medic at the palace. To me he was my Eraste. My everything." The detective turned the icon in his hand, examined it precisely; it showed a dark haired young man with strangely familiar facial features with the sun and a fish as his attributes. _Too familiar. It couldn’t be. Common sense!_. Symbols of paganism and Christianity combined. The detective couldn't help but brush his thumbs over it before placing it back to the open hand. Closing it. A gesture of understanding where no words where needed.

"Used to teased him every so often about his love for fishing. You'd better off being the lover of Poseidon, I used to say. Mind you he could talk for hours about it."

 _Oh tell me about it_ , chuckled the detective with an warm pure sparkle in his remarkably blues.

"But then he'd say what do I need Poseidon when I have Apollo as my Eromenos. One should not trade the sun for the ocean and be called a wise man. Alas he got too close to the sun."

"Nomen est omen." 

Justinian shot him a glance. "I didn't expect to be mocked in my native language. I misjudged you my dear Endymion; I expected this long to have been perished." "Latin is pretty much a dead language." "Yet you recite it like a silver tongue muse." The detective bit back a laugh, he was anything but that.

The Night had wrapped around them like a soft blanket but the cold breeze was suffocating. If he had a chance to look into Justinian’s mirror he would have seen that his rosé lips had turned towards blue by now. Equal to the arm of the ocean at daylight which had stretched before them now a mixture of onyx black and quicksilver where the moon touched the surface.

Out of an intuition he shuffled closer before having an arm wrapped around his shoulder and the warm cloak closing around his shoulder. There wasn't a soul left awake to raise an eyebrow at that gesture. Besides what was so wrong about two men huddling together to keep each other warm in the first place?

Now that the darkness was at its peak the day would rise soon. With it would the curse would repeat its dreadful play once again. _A shame this time I really wouldn't mind staying a bit longer_ , signed the pawn of fate. "There must be a way to break this curse?" the detective broke the silence. Justinian lifted his head, which had rested upon his opponents shoulders, to meet him at eye level. "It's inevitable/ unbreakable I'm afraid. I am only conscious of what happened in the time when I am send here. Before the actual treacherous act I am not." "You're stuck in a time loop?" "Well yes I mean no. The centuries I gain consciousness change every time. Mind you I was almost executed for sorcery the other day in Camelot. I reckon it had something to do with talking to the Princes Manservant too bluntly about some things." "King Arthur and Merlin are legends... who else Robin Hood?" "Died at the hands of Allan A Dale who got seduced by the Guy of Gisborne.. I hadn't done anything that time to deserve it. We got carried away there." Justinian smiled shaking his head. Good memories though, he wondered if he could ever return to them.

Effortless the detectives mind raced to a solution as he paid closer attention to who was holding him.

"Do you wear exactly the same clothes every time you time jump?" "Yes. Otherwise I would be wearing an outfit equal to your revealing customs. I do not get behind such tight fitting clothes."

The detective signed. The stranger either hadn't seen enough of this century or had.

"So what if we alter something. Add a note." A helpless sign followed.

 **  
** "I've tried that before. Written notes on papyrus ,paper, skin with ink, blood and water proof paint. It wasn't there in the night that had followed." "Have you tried leaving something behind?" Blinking back he tried his best to remember through all the deaths and resurrections an act like this.  
"No. I haven't.. Why should I do such a thing?." "Exactly." "You are either incredibly wise or mistaken." "What do you have to lose?" "Alas... what to leave behind?"  
_You know what  
If I had to give up my token of love  
So must you  
For me it was to forge my shackles of an unrequited unconditional love  
For you it's to free yourself from its curse._  
The young emperor looked at him as he had read those words from his eyes. Once more he retrieved the icon from his pouch, holding onto it close to his heart before placing it into the detective’s hands. "Keep it safe for me." "I will." Before he could put it into his pockets, a soft cold hand was placed upon his, with an warning sign in golden eyes. “You may blame Aphrodite soft as she is she has almost killed me with love for that boy. Don’t let that happen again.” “It isn’t as easy as you picture it. Times are different now.” “Life in the now and not in remorse of things yet to come. Take courage dear heart.” The detective shook his head and stood up.

Why was he even having still having this conversation in the first place?

Hadn’t he wanted to leave ages ago?

There was no chance for him and….

This was just too ridiculous.

“Right.” He began in a tone to end a conversation which had been going on for far too long, but then didn’t continued making up an excuse cause why the hell would he have needed one in the first place? Justinian smiled weary at him before getting up as well. “The sun is rising. I can feel it.” Just before the detective could ask, he noticed that the blood stains have almost vanished from the younger man’s clothes and skin. Hands which oddly were twins of his own. Clearly he was mistaken. Blamed the lack of sleep for playing tricks on him.

They walked into town again in silent as light slowly crept in. The streets where still abandoned. Back to the place where their encounter had begun.

Justinian touched the pillar where he had been slammed against earlier, blood was still visible.

Now with the light was fair enough both men looked at each other in awe. It wasn’t exactly like looking into a mirror, more like a looking at an artist’s portrait of oneself. Or well an interpretation.

They shared the same copper hair and bodily features, with the difference that Justinian still had the soft features of Morse when he was in the beginning of his 20s.

Just their eye color didn’t match anymore, but the young emperor blamed his golden ones on the curse.

There where so many questions in need of an answer.

“Stay.” Begged the detective feeling that the time had come for their final departure. Justinian cupped his face with a both hands before kissing him with a smile. “Endeavour I like that name. Oh and so does Max.” 

Epilogue

The week in Venice had rushed past Morse like the fast train did, which he were taking back to Oxford. Vanished like smoke and mirrors. If it weren't for the small icon he had placed in his chest pocket he would still believe he had imagined his encounter.

Even though he wasn't so sure of that, maybe there was a rational explanation for all this. He probably have had too much of the heavy wine and found the icon somewhere along the canal. Or bought it. Hopefully not stolen... No he wouldn't have. _Best to stay away from the brain food for a while. Or at least cut down_

Pinching the bridge of his nose he turned the page of the poetry collection;

 _I met a traveler from an antique land_.... he closed the book reciting inaudible with a soft chuckled

"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

It had been late afternoon when the train arrived in Oxford, sun was already settling down with a breath taking orange and violet sky to bid her farewell. The window's on the train had gathered condensation and he rubbed the water off with a sleeve of his coat.

The train station's rooftop had been covert with a thick layer of snow, he'd noticed when he got out.

It was freezing brass monkeys.

In the air lingered the fruits of the engine's work and coffee. _This was his Oxford_

Someone had approached him while he was staring lost at the station sign.

"Well Morse looks like I've just caught you in time to prevent yourself from getting hypothermia." That someone turned out to be a very chipper Dr Debryn all cuddled up in cozy sweater , fluffy ear muffs and his full fishing gear in one hand. "What... but.." stuttered the detective. "Let's get you inside and warmed up first. You see I had an rather interesting talk with someone very strange at the Cherwell earlier." Both men walked inside the small station towards a tiny cafe.

"Copper hair, about my height, terrible manners and revered to himself as Emperor Justinian Hux?" Max shot him a concerned glance. "On the contrary. Looked rather sane to me, despite the lack of suitable layers of clothing for this kind of weather. Most likely from the theater." Morse retrieved the icon from his pocket. "Did he look like this?" Max examined the small icon with a laugh. „You wouldn't believe it!" he fumbled in his jacket pocket until he found a similar icon. A boy not yet mans with copper hair, in a black and red toga, the insignias of the emperors and a moon was portrait. "I met a traveler from an ancient land.." began Morse biting back a laugh. This was the beginning of something fantastic wasn't it?

"Look at my works ye mighty and despair" finished Justinian who had watched them from a safe distance "Don't you mean our work?“ corrected Icarus wrapping an arm around his lover who hadn't expected him. After all countless of reincarnation cycles had passed since they had held each other last.

**Author's Note:**

> WAHOOO A HAPPY ENDING OR HAPPY BEGINNINGS 
> 
> Vaguely based on the emperor  
> Flavius Petrus Sabbatius Iustinianus Augustus and Hadrian ; more like their illegal lovechild  
> Agápe* love of the soul aka unconditional love  
> Eraste = The lover age 20 to 40  
> Eromenos = The beloved age 14 to 20  
> For the sake of sanity is the age gap between Justinian and Icarus just a year and not like hell knows how much between Hadrian and Antinous. @_@#  
> Justinian quotes Sapphos poem It’s no use / Mother dear and Ozymandes


End file.
